M ost people have that one friend whose style they envy. That friend they wish would take them shopping. Modster founder Elizabeth Van Dulman is launching a platform to make that happen.

Modster allows stylists, fashionistas or people who just think they have good taste share their style and create “looks” and make money doing it. Modster is opening to the public – the website is currently accepting requests to participate and will be sending out those invitations starting next week, Van Dulman told me.

The idea began as a platform to connect ordinary people with personal stylists – a two-sided marketplace. Stylists would sign up for Modster and advertise their style on the site, and then users would browse, select the stylist they like best and then pay that person to pick out clothes and accessories to make up a look like having a personal shopper without having to pay the rates of a personal shopper. But Van Dulman was running into difficulties with that model.

“Whenever you build a platform you have the two-sided market chicken-and-egg problem,” she told me. “How do you bring in the stylists when you don’t have the clients for them?”

Modster did a lot of closed beta testing and found it was best to target young, social, savvy, stylish people who are used to shopping online, sharing on social networks and taking a lot of selfies – the people who would otherwise be sharing a picture of a skirt or jacket they like on Pinterest. Only with Modster, when they share those articles of clothing or accessories that make up a look, it includes a link to the source where anyone who likes it will be able to buy those items. That stylist and Modster each get a cut of that sale.

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